Sermon – “The Dead, Awake or Sleeping?” – Garner Ted Armstrong Sermon, July 11, 1998

Whether it be the beliefs and teachings of nominal Christianity or of Judaism or Islam or of any of the many other pagan belief based religions that infest the world, nearly all of them have a belief that the dead are not dead at all but just in another place.

On the other hand the Bible nowhere teaches that the dead, or the goodly among them, are in heaven. Christ said that no man had ascended into the heavens except He that came down from Heaven, the Son of Man.
John 3:13
And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
The Apostle Peter on the Day of Pentecost 31AD said, Acts 2: 29
“Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.”
The Apostle Paul said (over and over again) in 1 Cor. 15 that the dead are asleep. Profoundly asleep with no consciousness – euphemism in part but a true description of the dead. He also said that dead in Christ will rise incorruptible “at His coming” – and not before.

The scriptures are replete with true and apt descriptions of the state of the dead and where they are now – in their graves whatever that may comprise.

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